Why MotoGP is better than Formula 1

Do you ever feel like four wheels is just, you know, too many? The 2017 seasons of both Formula 1 and MotoGP, motorcycling's premier class championship, kick off this weekend, but which grid is going to have you hooked in this year? GQ went behind the scenes with GoPro at Sachsenring for the German GP to find out why MotoGP is better than Formula 1...

If you’re feeling the need for some petrol-fuelled therapy of a Sunday afternoon, it’s highly likely that your first port of call is Formula 1. Alas, we fear you have sold yourself short. Just a channel switch away is MotoGP, motorbike racing’s premier class equivalent. With bigger characters, bigger crashes and bigger balls than Formula 1, MotoGP is garnering a growing UK audience. Why? Because, well, it’s just better. GQ went behind the scenes with GoPro at the German MotoGP round to prove to you that two wheels is better than four…

Valentino Rossi is one of the greatest sportsmen ever

If you know anything about MotoGP, you know this: Valentino Rossi is the Greatest Of All Time. There are simply not enough superlatives to attach to this man. The nine-time world champion is a veritable deity to followers of the sport. “The Doctor”, as he is known for his forensically skilled approach to dismantling his opponents, boasts a Grand Prix career spanning 20 years (yes, that’s two whole decades) and is still competing at the very top of the grid at the age of 39. Not only do his stats stack up, he’s also just a really great bloke. Down to earth, unfathomably cool, with more than a pinch of silliness (he celebrated his 2009 championship win escorted by a live chicken) Valentino Rossi has a dedicated yellow-drenched fan base to rival, well, pretty much anyone.

Valentino Rossi has teamed up with MotoGP sponsors GoPro to give viewers a privileged behind the scenes glimpse of his life on and off the track...

Yes, their knees really do touch the ground

It’s everyone’s favourite question. Yes, going fast is important but accuracy is what wins a rider a race: in motorbike racing that means maximising your lean angle. That’s why you see MotoGP riders appearing to defy gravity on the tightest corners of a track as they reach a lean angle of up to 64 degrees from vertical – to put this in context, the highest spec street bike will max out at 50. And yes, this means some serious contact at some very high speeds. To prevent riders from losing a patella every race, the riders wear inch-thick knee sliders attached to their leathers. Although these are made of specially formulated, seriously strong thermo plastic, they are usually completely destroyed by the end of every race. Ouch.

Rider Stefan Nebel takes us through a lap of Sachsenring to show you just what a MotoGP rider needs to do to get it right...

MotoGP riders are racing ankle-to-ankle with each other

In Formula 1 the action is fast paced, but the drivers at least have the better part of a car between each other. In MotoGP there is no such physical barrier. If your opponent is going to overtake you, he’s probably not got that much space to do it in (unless you’ve massively messed up). The margins, for error and otherwise, are reduced considerably in MotoGP. To put space into context, the area of each tyre that is in contact with the road is approximately the same size as a credit card – not something you want to think about at over 200mph. This means ankle-to-ankle racing and some fantastically human battles that you can actually see – including the occasional middle finger exchanged between rivals.

MotoGP riders are out there on their own

Want less meddling in your racing? MotoGP has no team radio, and – sweet hallelujah – no pit stops. As a result, the racing is much purer, uninterrupted and lead much more by the rider’s skill than strategy. The only information relayed to the riders from the teams is via a pit board, of which they get a momentary glimpse on the pit straight. Even when teams try and tell their riders what to do, they don’t always listen. At Sachsenring in 2016 we saw Valentino Rossi downright ignore Yamaha’s repeated calls for him to come and change tyres in what was declared a flag-to-flag race due to turbulent weather conditions. He lost out, but hey it’s his prerogative.

German Moto2 rider Jonas Folger who clinched second in Saschenring, talks us through preparing to go out on the track...

There is so much more overtaking in MotoGP

We don’t know about you, but when watching sport, we like it when stuff happens. The more things that happen, the more fun it tends to be. If we make this equation scientific, then MotoGP is off the scale on the fun-meter, with significantly higher overtaking statistics. In 2011, Formula 1 averaged at 43 overtakes per race (many of which came about on the straights due to the deployment of DRS). In the 2015 Australian MotoGP, we saw a staggering 52 overtakes occur between just four riders (Marquez, Rossi, Lorenzo, Iannone). Not convinced? Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda has even said that MotoGP offers “the most incredible racing you can see today”. Are you going to argue with Niki Lauda? Go on, we dare you.

Let’s treat you to a superb example. In a classic race at Catalunya in 2009, Valentino Rossi and teammate, rival and title contender, Jorge Lorenzo, produced an epic closing battle until in the very last lap of the race. They swapped the lead no less that four times.

MotoGP is in a Golden Age

If you’re a MotoGP newbie, you’ve arrived right on time. MotoGP is going through a considerable heyday, just when Formula 1’s popularity and heartrate levels are waning. Of course, this is the Rossi era, which helps: but his return to Yamaha reignited with even greater fire his fierce rivalry with teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Lorenzo has now moved to Ducati, making for a tantalising shake up for 2017. Couple that with the reigning world champion Marc Marquez, whose accession to a factory ride at Honda in 2013 lead him to become – in his rookie year – the youngest ever MotoGP world champion, and we’ve had the pleasure of watching three way title battles fought with superb racing between three of the most extraordinary riders to ever grace the grid. 2017 sees up-and-coming hotshot Maverick Viñales (yes, we know, great name) join Rossi at Yamaha, and he's currently looking faster than all of them.

The rivalries in MotoGP are more intense than in any other sport

All that friction between knee sliders was always going to generate a bit of heat – but the end of the 2015 season turned it into a fireball. As Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo entered the penultimate race of the season, the two title contenders were just eleven points apart: it was Rossi’s to lose. In a gasp-inducing press conference, Rossi accused Spaniard Marquez of deliberately trying to hold him up in races in order to give his countryman (Lorenzo) the edge. The spat escalated into an extraordinary next race in Malaysia, where a viciously fought battle between Rossi and Marquez ended, well, badly. SPOILER ALERT: Rossi’s actions in the controversial incident earned him such a heavy penalty in the final race of the season that the championship went to Lorenzo.

MotoGP has some fiery characters

Well, what did you expect from a sport dominated by Italians and Spaniards? Formula 1 is often criticised for a lack of characters like the James Hunts and Ayrton Senna’s of old. In MotoGP, it’s not just the dynamic between the Old Master, the Young Pretender and the Pantomime Villain (Lorenzo, to Rossi fans) that excites, but there are characters all down the track. Andrea Dovisioso and Andrea Iannone are currently locked in a battle to keep their jobs at Ducati (and are doing it by occasionally crashing into each other), Brit Cal Crutchlow has never knowingly minced his words, Casey Stoner never really stopped complaining about people going faster than him, and Marco Simoncelli was a lovable overgrown bad boy who the paddock misses dearly.

MotoGP is more than a bit dangerous

The no-holds barred racing that characterises MotoGP ahead of Formula 1, combined with the exposure of the rider to the elements and top speeds of over 220 miles per hour, makes MotoGP seriously dangerous. These guys crash a lot – over 500 times a season, in fact. Legendary British rider Barry Sheene had to move to Spain in his retirement to prevent the sheer number of bolts in his limbs rusting. MotoGP has also lost some talented riders to tragic accidents in recent years, including Shoya Tomizawa and recently Luis Salom from the Moto2 class and the extraordinary Marco Simoncelli from MotoGP, an audacious rider tipped to be a future world champion. These accidents are obviously just the worst thing ever, but it shows how mentally strong the riders have to be as well as physically, and just how much they risk every time they get on the track.

MotoGP is seriously physical

So you thought the riders just sat on a bike, and the bike basically did everything? Good luck telling Roger Federer that his racquet did all the work. Moving a MotoGP work is hard work – in fact, it hurts. MotoGP bikes withstand 1.2g of braking force on corners – a similar amount to Formula 1 cars, but a MotoGP rider must simultaneously manhandle 350lbs of machinery from upright to horizontal and back again, all while in a pretty ridiculous squat position. Riders can even develop a condition called arm pump in which their forearm muscles take on such exertion during a race that they swell up to 120 per cent in size. The membrane surrounding the muscles does not expand causing acute pain – all from just moving the bike. Oh and they also blink, like, once every two minutes.

MotoGP has some great British talent

So the Brits have done pretty well in Formula 1 – better than any other nation by a country mile, in fact. Not since the days of the legendary Barry Sheene back in the Seventies have we had a British MotoGP champion. These days, however, the future is looking bright with three Brits on the grid - more than we’ve had in years. Former Supersport World Champion Cal Crutchlow took his first MotoGP win in the Czech Republic in 2016, making him the first Brit in 35 years to win a MotoGP round. And he not only did it once in 2016, but twice, winning again in Australia. Scott Redding got on the podium in Assen in 2016 and has been tipped to get a Ducati factory ride in the coming years and both Redding and Red Bull KTM rider Bradley Smith (formerly of Tech 3 Yamaha) appeared together on the podium in San Marino in 2015.

MotoGP crashes are much more spectacular

Everyone loves a good crash – sorry, we know it hurts. In MotoGP, they’re just more fun. Riders will often lowside (when the front or rear wheel loses grip) and slide off into the gravel, but the highsides are the big dangerous ones which occur when the rear wheel loses grip, slides and then regains traction suddenly – usually catapulting the rider off the bike into the ether.

Let’s face it, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Allow us to reward your patience.